Omar Rayyan is a Massachusetts artist best known for his
illustrations of children's books and stories. His work regularly
appears in Cricket magazine. He has won awards from the World
Fantasy Convention ("Most Humorous") and the New England
Press Association (for editorial illustration). Rayyan's work delights
fans at many regional and national science fiction conventions.

Address questions about the book to sales@....
oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

One of the best aspects of my employment in a public library is
that, in the course of my sci-fi/fantasy collection development
duties, I actually get paid to read Locus magazine. Is this the
perfect job, or what?

Imagine my excitement when I discovered that the May 2004
issue of Locus featured an insightful, lengthy interview entitled
"Terry Pratchett: 21 Years of Discworld." It's chock-full of
the Great One's candid, sometimes controversial, often funny,
and always intelligent (bordering on knurd) views on such
topics as the writing process; children's books; the evolution
of sci-fi; other prominent authors; fandom; and the future of
Discworld.

I highly recommend you drop everything else you're doing
(unless it's heavy, and your foot is directly underneath, or
you're holding a small child -- use your own judgment) and
read it ASAP. Copies are available via direct order from
Locus (PO Box 13305, Oakland, CA 94661;
fax 510-339-8144), or your local library (don't forget the magic
of interlibrary loan).

In the interim, here are a few highlights to tantalize you,
first from the forthcoming Going Postal:

"The next adult Discworld book, Going Postal, will be
published close to the 21st anniversary of the first
Discworld book, so I have to make certain it's good! . . .
there seems to be an international habit of postmen,
when the stress gets too much, to stash undelivered mail
everywhere, like mad hamsters storing food . . .

"Going Postal involves a confidence trickster, a forger
and flimflam man, who's due to be hanged until Lord
Vetinari, in his beneficent wisdom, sends a stay of
execution with the offer: 'You can go back on the
scaffold or you can become Postmaster General.'
The guy says: 'But I'm a career criminal! I deceive
people! I take money from them!' The reply?
'Welcome to government service.' Sometimes,
maybe, a criminal is better at getting things to work.
And then he finds out how the last four postmasters died . . . ."

And another upcoming book, sort of an alternate history of Darwin:

"There is going to be a third Science of Discworld book, because
I got together with Jack Cohen and Ian Stewart and we were
speculating on what life would have been like if The Origin of
Species had never been written. . . . what if Darwin had written
a magnificent, sparkling work of what is effectively creationist
science rather than Origin, one that effectively became
acceptable to all sides in the debate?"

When you're a Jet, you're a Jet all the way . . .

"I put 'sleepers' in various books, little hooks for future books.
Sitting there for years and years are the two powerful aristocratic
families in Ankh-Morpork, the Selachii and the Venturii -- loosely
translated, they are the Sharks and the Jets, which means I'm
setting them up for a Discworld version of Romeo and Juliet.
Most people could give you a thumbnail Romeo and Juliet plot
even if they don't really know their Shakespeare, simply because
there have been so many movies. I think it was meant to be a
comedy; one day, I'll try it."

Dark Discworld:

"'Grim' is probably the wrong word for my last few adult books;
grim by comparison, I suppose, to get away from that 'wacky,
zany' label."

The Discworld fandom: It's alive, it's alive!

"When one town in the UK took Ankh-Morpork as its
sister city a few years ago, the ceremony was astonishing:
there must have been at least 600 people in costume . . . .
I felt a bit like Baron Frankenstein -- you put the crocodile
clips to the bolt on the neck and pull the lever and it gets up
off the slab, and it's walking down to the village, and you've
got no idea where it's going to go or what you can do about it.
It was great fun."

Gaining respect from the literary establishment:

"One of the curious things I've found, which was particularly
noticeable after The Amazing Maurice, is that if you're known
as a fantasy writer, the literary people kind of edge around a
bit, but if you're writing for children: 'Ah, that's OK. That
nice Professor Tolkien and that nice Mr Lewis did that.'"

On being a workaholic:

". . . this winter I had a bit of a health scare . . . . I took a
good look around and thought: there's no actual rule that
says I have to do two books a year. . . . I think I'm going
to take more holidays. The trouble is, last time I went on
holiday I wrote 25,000 words!"

After reading reports from several different sources about Terry
having a serious heart operation, we contacted Colin Smythe to try to
find out what had happened. Terry wrote back:

"What I had was an angioplasty, where they widen arteries in the
heart by going up through your leg (believe me). No real
cutting, no weeks in bed, it's an out-next-day-job. I gather
there was some 'excitement' because I reacted badly to something
or other, but I was out of it and dreaming of sandwiches and,
indeed, was out next day.

"I'm not making a big deal out of this one way or the other. It
wasn't an emergency operation, although it would have had to be
done sooner or later; it was needed because of the long term
effects of high blood pressure I didn't know I had, and which is
now nice and low because they've got the pills right."

Answer the questions and put the letter indicated into
the spot shown. Read the letters backwards and
find out where the Glorious People's Republic was located.
(Note: all spellings are from the 2002 HarperCollins edition.)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Example: Pratchett's first name -- 1st letter:
ANSWER: Terry = T
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Help needed! Would you like to help prevent errors in the
Puzzle? Contact Joe Schaumburger at jschaum111@...
and be our new puzzle editor.
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If you did not get all 3 parts, write: jschaum111@...
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End of Part 2, says my computer -- continued on Part 3 of 3

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